Reading with Confidence with My New Readingpen
February 9th, 2008
Written By: Adam Sussman
It was just my birthday and this year I am psyched with the gift my wife got me. It’s called a Readingpen and I hope it will assist me while reading books.
I love reading books but quite frankly I stumble quite a bit when I come across uncommonly used words and a lot of the books I’ve been reading lately seem to be filled with them. Basically, I never excelled with the English vocabulary.
For years I’ve been telling myself I should read with a dictionary but when it comes down to it I can’t really be bothered. For the number of words I have trouble with I would probably be spending more time reading the dictionary then I would the book.
Anyhow, I’ve sort of overcome this by typically skipping over the words I don’t understand and assume what the words mean based on the context of what the writers are trying to say.
I’ve basically been doing this my whole life and I am sort of getting tired of doing it. I feel I have been shortchanging myself. Also, I have come to learn that one word could change the whole context of a sentence and I’ve probably been completely missing the concepts for many points in many books that I have read over the years.
For a while now I have had my eye on the Readingpen. It’s a cool little gizmo that will allow me to scan a word and it will immediately show me the definition of it. I know that there are other electronic pocket dictionaries but for some reason this product appeals to my techno-geek nature.
February 25th, 2008 04:34
Oh..good tool..
March 1st, 2008 08:02
Read with greater confidence
This is a quick and effective NLP technique for keeping confident and focused.
Take a minute to imagine yourself riding in a roller coaster. See yourself sitting in
the front car, riding up and down.
Now, make another picture of a roller coaster, but this time, do NOT see
yourself in the picture. See it as if you were actually looking out of your own
eyes, sitting in the roller coaster. Ride for a few moments.
Now, which one of those felt more real in your body? I’ll bet anything it was
the second kind. An image or goal only appears real to your mind if it comes in
the second form, as if you were seeing it through your own eyes.
Step One:
Recall a time in your past when you felt confident and powerful. A time where
you fully felt the way you’d like to feel. This can be anywhere and
about anything - a great golf shot you made, or an “A” book report you did in
school. Running a race, scoring a goal….
Step Two:
Close your eyes, and see yourself in the first kind of picture, going through
that experience again.
Step Three:
Now, step into the picture, and see the events as if you were actually looking
out from your own eyes. See what you saw, hear what you heard, and feel how good
it felt in your body. When those feelings of confidence and power reach their
peak in your body, reach over with your right hand, and give your left wrist a
squeeze. Run through this twice more, giving the same squeeze in the same place.
This will train your mind to recall those feelings of power and confidence
whenever you squeeze your wrist the way you are doing now.
Step Four:
Think of a situation or circumstance where you would like to be more powerful at reading a book
or more poised or whatever it is you’d like.
Step Five:
Picture it the second way, as if it were going on and you were seeing it through
your own eyes.
Step Six:
As you do so, reach over with your right hand and squeeze your left wrist,
triggering your confidence anchor. This will train your mind to automatically
call up the feelings of confidence and power when you are in a situation like
the one you are seeing through your own eyes. You won’t even have to think about
doing it, which is the advantage. (And that’s why anchoring works where
“positive thinking” won’t, because often by the time you get yourself thinking
positively, it’s already too late.)
Now, once you’ve done this, I want you to do it again, but this time I want you
to pick different circumstances where you’d like to use your “power attitude”
that we talked about in the first chapter. Make one a situation where you see a
beautiful woman you’d like to talk to. Another could be making a pass at a woman
back at your place. Go through the situation with the first kind of picture,
seeing yourself in the picture. Then step into the picture, and go through it,
feeling what it would feel like, looking through your own eyes. Do the same
thing for the second “learning from your mistakes” attitude. See yourself making
a mistake, feeling ok about it, and learning whatever lesson you need so you can
do it differently next time. Then step into the picture and see it through your
own eyes.
http://www.leadingminds.biz
May 1st, 2008 07:04
Reading this article I felt like I am reading my own mind. This will be a great tool if I get one. I read lot in English. The way I had been reading is just like what you said in the article. I skips the words which I really don’t know the meaning of. I assume the meaning of some of those difficult words by comparing it with the context and instance of the particular scene. So I now realize that my vocabulary in English never developed. Recently I had a tough time reading the book “Inheritance of Loss”. The language and the vocabulary I found is very difficult to follow. (Nothing offensive against anyone) Nice article. Thanks for sharing that gadget.
May 13th, 2008 03:18
This pen is really cool. I also face sometimes the same problem as you; i also dont have a good vocabulary. Can you please let me know how can i buy it, is it available on any site so that i can order online. anyways i am going to google it too…
September 4th, 2008 12:52
OMG!! we are getting to the point were just taking a pill and you’ll get the words of a 200 page book!! lol